In 1997, David Hare adapted the little-known play, Ivanov, and revealed the young Anton Chekhov as a markedly different writer from the one English-speaking audiences recognize from the more familiar plays.

Now Hare has turned his attention to another, equally surprising key work of Chekhov's youth - an abandoned seven-hour teenage manuscript in which a Russian schoolmaster faces up to the implications of being irresistibly attractive to four different women. Once again, we are introduced to a great Russian playwright who is funnier, more exuberant and more wildly romantic than anyone expects.

Platonov, in this adaptation, was premiered ... Read moreat the Almeida Theatre, London, in September 2001.